Pakistan government to meet to review US ties

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister is to chair a meeting of his top security advisors on Monday evening to review relations with the US following the drone strike that killed Taliban leader Hakmullah Mehsud.

The killing of the feared chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is blamed for killing thousands in a six-year battle against the state, in a drone attack on Friday sparked a furious response from Islamabad.

The government was taking the first steps towards initiating talks with the militants when Mehsud was killed, prompting Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar to accuse Washington of “scuttling” peace efforts.

Opposition parties led by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party have demanded the government close Pakistan’s roads to convoys supplying Nato forces in Afghanistan.

PTI has said it will block Nato convoys in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where it is in power, which would cut off one of the main crossing points into Afghanistan.

The TTP announced on Sunday that Asmatullah Shaheen Bhittani, the head of the militants’ supreme council, had been appointed as temporary leader while a permanent replacement for Mehsud is chosen.

Bhittani, who was seen as close to Mehsud, has been touted as a potential permanent replacement, as has the movement’s number two Khan Said, alias Sajna.